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THE MONUMENT TO THE CHEVALIER DE SAINT-SAUVEUR. 
KING'S CHAPEL, BOSTON. 



THE MEMORIAL 



TO THE 



CHEVALIER DE SAINT-SAUVEUR 



THE HISTORY OF THE MONUMENT AND OF 

THE VOTES TO ERECT IT, AND AN AC- 

COUNT OF THE CEREMONIES AT THE 

DEDICATION. MAY 24, 1917 



By FITZ-HENRY SMITH, Jr. 



REPRINTED FROM THE PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE BOSTONIAN SOCIETY 
1918 






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iUH 26 1919 



THE MEMORIAL 

TO THE 

CHEVALIER DE SAINT-SAUVEUR 



An Account read by request before the Bostonian Society, 
December i8, 1917, with Additions, by 

FITZ-HENRY SMITH. Jr. 



" Few men can afford to wait a hundred years to be 
remembered." So spake Elihu Root at the unveiling of the 
monument to Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the engineer 
who made the plan of the City of Washington. L'Enfant 
died in 1825, and it was not until 1909 that there came 
public recognition of his great work. In the long interval 
his grave laid neglected — marked only by a tree — while the 
city rose in splendor about him. Then were witnessed these 
scenes : the remains of the forgotten man lying in state under 
the dome of the capitol, attended by the dignitaries of the 
nation ; after the ceremonies there, a procession to Arlington, 
the hearse, wrapped in the colors of America and France, 
escorted by one of the regiments to which the Major had 
belonged ; and — two years later, — the dedication of a 
monument over his grave, with addresses by the President 
of the United States and by the Secretary of State. Thus 
remembered and honored at last, the artist-soldier was placed 
in the great national cemetery on a slope overlooking the 
beautiful city that he had seen in his dreams more than a 
century before, and had planned for the mighty nation his 
vision told him the United States was destined to be.* 



* See J. J. Jusserand, With Americans of Fast and Present Days (New 
York, 1917), pp. 137^ 



4 The Memorial to the 

One hundred and thirty-nine years elapsed after the death 
of the Chevalier de Saint-Sauveur before a monument was 
raised to his memory and dedicated with ceremonies as im- 
pressive in their way as those which were held in honor of 
the designer of the City of Washington. But the circum- 
stances which caused the monument to be erected in Boston 
were very different from those which led to the memorial in 
the federal city. L'Enfant died in poverty and obscurity, 
cared for only by the man who befriended him in his last 
days, and upon whose property he was buried. The death of 
de Saint-Sauveur, on the other hand, was of grave concern 
to the men in authority at the time, and the state voted him 
a monument the day following his death. 

Who, then, was the Chevalier de Saint-Sauveur, and why 
was it voted that a monument be erected to his memory .? 
The answer is contained in a forgotten chapter of the history 
of the town of Boston in the American Revolution. 

The History of the Monument and of the 
Votes to Erect it. 

On the 6th of February, 1778, there was signed at Paris a 
treaty of alliance between France and the United States, the 
only treaty of the kind to which this nation has been a party, 
and the first visible evidence of the support which was to 
come from it was the sailing to America, two months later, 
of a fleet of twelve ships of the line and five frigates (one of 
which was subsequently sent back with despatches) com- 
manded by the Count d'Estaing and carrying as a passenger 
Gerard de Rayneval, the first ambassador of any nation to 
the United States.* 

The fleet took a long time crossing the Atlantic, so long, 
in fact, that news of its coming reached America in season 

* The fleet included the " Languedoc " of 90 guns, the " Tonnant " of 80, 
the 74s " Cesar," " Hector," " Zele," " Marseillais," " Protecteur " and " Guer- 
rier," the 64s " Vaillant," " Provence " and " Fantasque," the " Sagittaire," 50 
guns, and the frigates "Aimable," "Alcmene," " Chimfere " and " Engageante," 
of 26 or 30 guns each. 



Chevalier de Saint- Sauveiir 5 

for the British to prepare for it. They abandoned Philadel- 
phia and concentrated at New York, and when d'Estaing ar- 
rived at the Delaware, on the 8th of July, he found that his 
enemy had moved, and detaching a frigate (" La Chimere ") 
to take Gerard to Philadelphia, proceeded at once to Sandy 
Hook. At New York, we are told, the pilots balked at tak- 
ing the larger French vessels into the harbor and the fleet 
was sent on to co-operate with General Sullivan in the cam- 
paign about to be undertaken in Rhode Island. There, a 
greater misfortune awaited, for several of the French vessels 
were badly damaged by a storm,* and d'Estaing acting under 
explicit orders given him for just such an emergency, on 
August 23, 1778, sailed for Boston. 

The Count said, on leaving, that if he found at Boston 
the material he so urgently needed he would be ready to 
start anew to fight " for the glory of the French name and 
the interests of America." But Sullivan felt that he had 
been left in the lurch and he did not hesitate to say so, and 
whereas he was happily able to withdraw in safety from the 
difficult position in which he found himself, the abrupt termi- 
nation of the Rhode Island expedition, from which much had 
been expected, was the cause of general disappointment and 
of some ill feeling among the people. What, if anything, this 
had to do with what afterwards took place in Boston, it is 
difficult to say.f 

It is to be remembered that under the Duke de Choiseul there was a tre- 
mendous revival of the French navy and that Frenchmen were the master 
builders of the ships of the period. 

" The hull of the ' Constitution ' was modeled after the best French prac- 
tice." HolHs, The Frigate '^Constitution " (Boston, 1901), p. 38. 

* The " Languedoc " was completely dismasted and broke her bowsprit and 
tiller, the " Marseillais " lost foremast and bowsprit, and the " Protecteur " 
was otherwise crippled. " So fierce was the storm," says Fiske, " that it was 
remembered in local tradition as lately as 1850 as ' the Great Storm.' " The 
American Revolution (Boston, 1902), Vol. 2, p. 93. 

t See the interesting publication entitled Extrait du Journal d^un Officier 
de la Marine de VEscadre de M. le Comte d'Estaing (1782), p. 38, for a con- 
temporaneous French view of the effect of Sullivan's charges. 



6 TJie Memorial to the 

When he arrived at Boston, d'Estaing left his serviceable 
ships in Nantasket Roads arranged in such a way as to dis- 
pute the entrance of the British, should they attempt to fol- 
low, and brought his damaged liners into the inner harbor for 
repairs.* The exigency was considered so great that the 
French were permitted to work upon them on the Sabbath — 
" with as little Disturbance to the Inhabitants as possible, 
more especially during the time of divine Service,"! and the 
visitors were well treated in Boston until, on the night of 
September 8th, there was an attack on the fleet bakery which 
had been established ashore, and in attempting to intervene, 
the Chevalier de Saint-Sauveur and another officer, Pleville le 
Peley,! were wounded, the former by a blow over the eye 
which resulted in his death a week later. 

De Saint-Sauveur was a lieutenant on the "Tonnant," the 
second largest ship in the fleet, fiying the fiag of his brother- 
in-law, the Count de Breugnon, one of d'Estaing's two " chefs 
d'escadre." In addition, the Chevalier held the position of 
"aide-major" in the fleet, and at home was the first chamber- 
lain of Count d'Artois, the brother of Louis XVI. 

So serious an affront to the ally of the colonies, and its 
fatal ending to one so close to the family of the French king, 
greatly disturbed the men in charge of the cause of American 
independence. It was feared that the townspeople might be 
implicated, and how the French would take it was doubtful. 
Who were responsible has not been determined to this day, 
but some of the crew of a privateer, which was said to include 
British seamen, were suspected of a part in the riot, and d' 

* The " Marseillais " — " the Ship the nearest to the Town " — lay next to 
Governor's Island, where the French were given leave to land their sick. 
Mass. Archives, Documents, Vol. 169, p. 151. 

Mbid.,^. 158. 

} Le Peley, who was attached to the " Languedoc " at the time had an 
eventful history. Early in his career he lost his right leg, which was replaced 
by a wooden one, and twice thereafter the wooden leg was carried away. He 
retired from active service in 1788 and was Minister of Marine under the Di- 
rectory. Cf. Balch, The French in America during the War of Independence 
of the United States, Vol. 2 (Phil., 1895), p. 200. 



Chevalier de Saini-Sauveur 7 

Estaing, with rare good sense, was quick to act on the as- 
sumption that the attack was excited by British sympathizers. 
September loth he wrote General Heath that the common 
enemy of the allies " hesitated at nothing," and later told the 
general that he was fully satisfied the inhabitants had no 
hand in the affray — to the great relief of the local authorities. 

The American leaders for their part did everything possible 
to make amends, and thus it was that on September i6, 17 7^) 
the day following the death of the Chevalier, the General 
Court or Assembly of the State of Massachusetts Bay, out of 
respect to his memory, voted to "attend in Procession the 
Corps of the deceased to the Place of Interment " and to 
" provide a monumental Stone to be placed in the burial 
Ground where his Remains shall be deposited, with such in- 
scription as his Excellency the Count d'Estaing shall order." 

As there was yet some unrest, it was deemed wiser to 
forego a public funeral, and the young officer was buried 
quietly at night in the crypt of King's Chapel — in what has 
been thought to be the " stranger's tomb," so called, under- 
neath the porch of the church. But d'Estaing was much 
impressed and later when he wrote to his superior of the vote 
of the state and what he had done in consequence, he ex- 
pressed the hope that the king would " be satisfied by the 
public and sincere marks of the regret of the Americans," 
adding " they could not do more, and I must assure you that 
they would have liked to do far more." * 

After the burial the men in command of the allied forces 
gave public evidence of the friendship and understanding that 
existed between them. September 22d, d'Estaing and his 
officers paraded in Boston and attended numerous receptions, 
and on the 25th there was a grand love feast in Faneuil Hall, 
at which the following toasts were given :f 

* Letter of Nov. 5, 1778, printed in the Report of a Recess Committee on 
the monument. (May, 1906), Mass. Senate, No. 402, p. 5. 

t Lacour-Gayet, La Marine Militaire de la France Sotis le rigne de Louis 
XVL. (Paris, 1905), p. 173, note. 



The Memorial to the 

America. 

The King of France. 

Congress. 

The French Fleet. 

Gen. Washington and the American Army. 

The Independence of America. 

The AlHance between France and America ; may it never be 

broken. 

The French Minister to Congress. 

Franklin, the American Minister at the Court of France. 

Liberty and the Friendship of France. 

Commerce, Art, and Agriculture. 

M. d'Orvilliers and all his Army. 

The Count d'Estaing and all the Officers of the French Fleet in 

Boston Harbor. 

(By d'Estaing.) The President of the Council and all Americans 

here present. 

Monseigneur, the Duke de Chartres. 

The Queen of France. 

M. Du Chaff ault. 

The Marquis de La Fayette. 

American Ships and Sailors. 

All the Women and Young Girls who have lost their Husbands 

and Sweethearts in the Good Cause. 

The Duke de Choiseul. 

M. de Sartine. 

M. de Maurepas. 



General Washington, who had been informed of the riot, 
was well pleased when he learned that it had terminated in 
such a manner as to convince the French that no public insult 
was intended by the people of Boston, and he sagely advised 
that all possible means should be taken " to cultivate harmony 
between the people and the seamen " who, he apprehended, 
would "not be so easily reconciled as their officers, not having 
so much sense to direct them."* 

D'Estaing drafted the inscription for the monument — dated 
September 28th in the log book of the "Languedoc" — and 

* Letter of Sept. 22, 1778, in "Heath Papers," Vol. i, p. 95 (Mass. Hist. 
Soc. Coll., 5th Ser., Vol. 4), printed in a Report of the Committee on Libraries 
(April, 1905), Mass. Senate, No. 336, p. 17. 









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THE VOTE OF THE GENERAL COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY, 
SEPTEMBER 16, 1778. 
From the original in the State Archives. 



Chevalier de Saint-Saiiveur 9 

caused copies of it to be distributed in the fleet that his 
men might know of the action taken. But the task of es- 
tabhshing harmony between the seamen of the two nations 
proved, as Washington anticipated, more difficult to accom- 
plish, and no small part of the difficulty seems to have been 
due to the attitude of the American sailors. Rows are said 
to have occurred on the 26th and 27th of September, and on 
October 5th there was a street fight between the French and 
" some American seamen " followed by secret hints that " a 
much greater disturbance " would take place on the next 
night. Whereupon the Council ordered Heath to call out 
the troops, and intrusted to the Sheriff of Suffolk County 
the not very enviable duty of attending the troops to "see 
that no unlawful measure be taken in Quelling the Riot." * 

That and like energetic action by the local authorities pre- 
vented further serious outbreaks.! Early in November, 
d'Estaing sailed away to the West Indies, and with the de- 
parture of the fleet the Saint-Sauveur incident passed into 
history. 

In 1903, the French government published a roster of all 
the French forces that fought in the war of the American 
Revolution, $ and the same year there appeared in Paris a 
private work on the French sailors and soldiers in the war§ 

* Mass. Archives, Documents, Vol. 200, p. 132 and Vol. 169, p. 200. 

t On the evening of October 12th the American Brig " Hazard " came into 
the harbor and dropped anchor immediately alongside the Schooner " Dol- 
phin," commanded by M. Bouguier, an officer of the P^ench fleet. Although 
hailed and requested to move, the Americans paid no attention except to reply 
in terms characterized chiefly by force. The matter was then called to the 
attention of the authorities by the French consul, who feared the outcome, 
and the Council promptly told the commander of the " Hazard " to move her 
at once and to " order his men not to treat the men on board the ' Dolphin ' 
with any opprobrious language in time to come." Mass. Archives, Documents, 
Vol. 169, p. 217. 

X Les Combattants Frarifais de la Guerre Americaine. (Reprinted at Wash- 
ington in 1905 as a Senate Document. 58th Congress, 2d Session. Document 
No. 77.) 

§ De Noailles, M.irins et SoLiats Fratifaise en Amerique Pendant la Guerre 
de U Independence des Etats-Unis, pp. i,(iff. 



lO TJie Memorial to the 

which told the story of the death of the Chevalier de Saint- 
Sauveur and quoted the account of his burial, as written by 
the secretary of the fleet, in the church " dite chappelle du 
roy." 

Col. Chaille Long, a founder of the French Society of the 
Sons of the American Revolution, had been one of the com- 
missioners appointed to search the archives for the material 
of the publication of the French government just mentioned. 
In the Records of the Marine he found what has been referred 
to as the log book of the " Languedoc," d'Estaing's flag ship, 
containing an account of the Chevalier's death and the inscrip- 
tion on his monument, and he inquired of Capt. Albert A. 
Folsom of Brookline in what cemetery in Boston the monu- 
ment was erected. The Captain knew nothing about it, and as 
a result of the inquiry Bostonians had a rude awakening. For 
whereas the riot seems not to have been wholly unfamiliar to 
local antiquarians, little appeared to be known about the vote 
of the assembly for a monument to the victim, and less could 
be told about the place of his interment. An investigation 
revealed that the vote had never been carried out. 

We can only speculate as to the reason. It is to be noted, 
however, that the resolve carried no appropriation and that 
the stone was to be erected in the burial ground where the 
Chevalier's remains should be deposited. The burial took 
place in a church.* It would seem that the interment there 
was only temporary, with the expectation that the body of 
the young Frenchman would later be removed to some ceme- 
tery in the town — if it were not shipped to France, a not 
unhkely disposition in view of the high family connections of 
the deceased. Whether anything further was done with it, 
we do not know. Col. Thomas Dawes, who was charged 
with the duty of erecting the monument, does not seem to 
have recalled the matter to the attention of the Court. Ap- 

* The church seems to have no record of the interment, and Foote's 
Annals of King's Chapel (Boston, 1882 and 1896), makes no mention of de 
Saint-Sauveur or of his burial. 



Chevalier de Saint-Sauveur 



II 



parently the trying labors of the authorities during the re- 
maining years of the war, and in the critical period following 
when the nation was established, served but too well to cause 
them entirely to forget an affair which they had every reason 
to hope had been ended for all time. And it was not long 
before the Americans of 1778 found themselves at war with 
their late ally. 

But the reason why the vote was not carried out was not 
the issue. Massachusetts had said that it would erect a 
monument to the memory of the Chevalier and had failed to 
do so, and Capt. Folsom called the matter to the attention 
of the legislature of the Commonwealth through the Hon. 
Prentiss Cummings of Brookline, who filed a petition which 
was referred to the Committee on Libraries, The committee 
investigated the subject, and in April, 1905, made a report* 
relating how the question had arisen and publishing much 
of the available data about de Saint-Sauveur and his death, 
to which data I acknowledge that I am indebted. 

In closing the report, the committee said : " In war and in 
peace Massachusetts keeps her promises. Here is an event 
filled with uncertain and distressing possibilities at the time, 
which, in the more comprehensive view of the present, had 
the matter not been disposed of to the entire satisfaction of 
the French officers, might have ended the French alliance, 
and changed materially the subsequent history if not the re- 
sults of the war of the revolution. Yorktown might never 
have been a lustrous, historic name. The State had failed in 
its primal duty to keep the public peace ; the death of a French 
officer of distinction had been the result. All the reparation 
possible at the moment was made. The omitted or forgotten 
detail should be supplied, and to this end the committee 
recommend the passage of the accompanying resolve." 

The resolve called for the appointment of a recess commit- 
tee to report to the next General Court " such action as shall 
seem to them appropriate to carry out, at least in spirit, the 

* Senate No. 336. 



1 2 The Memorial to the 

promise implied" in the resolution of September i6, 1778. 
It was enacted as Chapter 72 of the Resolves of 1905, and 
under it a recess committee was appointed, which in its turn 
made a report* recommending legislation authorizing them 
" to cause to be erected, on behalf of the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts, a monument with a suitable inscription thereon 
in the cemetery of King's Chapel in Boston, subject to the 
grant of a site therein by the city of Boston," and for a sum 
not exceeding three thousand dollars. 

The Court indorsed the recommendation by passing a re- 
solvef granting the authority requested but cut the amount 
of the appropriation in two, which disarranged the plansj of 
the committee. Capt. Folsom thereafter died, the appropria- 
tion lapsed, and a second vote of the legislature of Massachu- 
setts for a memorial to the Chevalier de Saint-Sauveur failed 
to be fulfilled. 

That was the situation when in 1916 the Bostonian Society 
took up the matter and filed a petition in the General Court 
which resulted in a resolve§ signed by the Governor on the 
ist of June appropriating one thousand dollars ** for the erec- 
tion, at some appropriate place in the City of Boston, of a 
monument with a suitable inscription, to the memory of the 
Chevalier de Saint-Sauveur " and for the appointment of a 
commission to carry the legislation into effect. The commis- 
sion was appointed June 14, 19 16, and consisted of Courtenay 
Guild, as Chairman, Grenville H. Norcross, J. Randolph 
Coolidge, Jr., and the late Robert S. Peabody,|l 

* May 1906, Senate No. 402. t Chap. 104 of the Resolves of 1906. 

X The monument planned was to consist of two bronze tablets embedded 
side by side in a granite block, with a suitable base, one tablet to have the 
French inscription as prepared by d'Estaing, and the other an English transla- 
tion, which was the Count's idea of the manner in which the inscription might 
appear on the monument, as appears from his letter of November 5th, printed 
in the committee's report. 

§ Chap. 151 of the Resolves of 19 16. 

II Mr. Guild was Chairman of the Committee on Memorials of the Bos- 
tonian Society and Mr. Norcross President of the Society, and Mr. Coolidge 
and Mr. Peabody were the wardens of King's Chapel. 



CJievalier lie Saint-Sanveur 13 

Previously the project had been submitted to the proprietors 
of King's Chapel, who became greatly interested, and at a 
meeting on April 24, 19 16, voted "to permit the placing of 
a monument in memory of the Chevalier de Saint-Sauveur 
on the north exterior wall of the church tower or in the plot 
between the tower and the church-yard." 

Mr. A. W. Longfellow, a member of the Bostonian Society, 
was employed as architect and in consultation with the com- 
mission worked out the design of the memorial. It was their 
aim to have the monument, so far as might be, of a form that 
was likely to be chosen in the period when the Chevalier died. 
There are monuments in this country, erected in the i8th 
century, of the general type of the memorial to the Chevalier- 
But it is an interesting circumstance that the design adopted 
was inspired by a monument in the Bunhill Fields Burial 
Ground, London, E. C, erected in 1725 in memory of 

" Joseph Collette, Esq., late of Hertford Castle, some- 
time President and Govenor of Fort St. George in East 
India, who lived and dyed in the firm Belief in the 
Resurection." 

The monument to de Saint-Sauveur is of concrete granite, 
fourteen feet high, and was made by Emerson & Norris of 
Boston. Standing on a base is a plinth, with tablets of green 
slate on all sides, which forms the pedestal and supports a 
dwarfed obelisk, with four cannon balls at the foot of the 
obelisk as appropriate emblems. 

On the tablet facing Tremont Street is the inscription in 
the main just as d'Estaing wrote it, the only changes being 
those made necessary by the fact that the monument was 
erected at a later time and by a different authority than was 
orignally contemplated, that the preface has been translated 
into English as is fitting on a monument in a country speak- 
ing that language, and that the name of the vessel to which 
the Chevalier was attached and the date of his death have 
been inserted in brackets, as was suggested by the recess 
committee of 1905. 



14 The Memorial to the 

Surmounting the inscription is a bas-relief of the arms of 
the Chevalier's family, flanked by dolphins indicative of his 
naval service, and upon the rear tablet appear the words : 

ERECTED IN CONSEQUENCE 

OF A RESOLVE OF THE 

STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY 

l6 SEPTEMBER 1 778 

AND OF A RESOLVE 

OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF 

MASSACHUSETTS 

I JUNE I916. 

The inscription as d'Estaing wrote it was as follows : * 
Ce monument a ete ^rige en consequence d'une ddib(5ration 
de Massachusetts-Bay, du 16 Septembre 1778, en m^moire de 
M. le Comte de Saint-Sauveur, premier Chambellan de son 
Altesse Royale Monseigneur le Comte d'Artois, frere de Sa 
Majeste le Roy de France. 

Cet officier, aide-major de I'escadre frangaise et lieutenant 
de vaisseau apres avoir eu le bonheur de risquer sa vie pour le 
service des Etats-Unis, remplissait son devoir lorsqu'il a ete la 
victime d'un tumulte cause par des gens malintentionnes ; mort 
avec le meme attachement pour TAm^rique, les liens du devoir 
et de I'inclination qui attachent ses compatriotes a la ville de 
Boston en ont ^te plus resserres. Puissent etre ainsi infructueux 
k jamais tous les efforts qu'on oserait tenter pour sdparer la 
France et I'Amdrique. Telle est la pri^re que feront dans les 
siecles a venir au Dieu tout puissant, tout Fran^ais et tout 
Americain qui jetteront les yeux sur le mausolee d'un jeune 
homme enleve h. des amis qui ne peuvent se consoUer de I'avoir 
perdu, qu'en voyant de pareilles fleurs funeraires repandues sur 
son tombeau. 

Cette inscription, proposee selon I'enonce de la deliberation, 
par le Comte d'Estaing, Commandant de la premiere escadre 
frangaise envoyee par le Roy de France aux Etats-Unis de 
I'Amerique, ses allies, a ete approuvee par (ici est ecrit le nom 
des officiers generaux et de tous les commandants des vais- 
seaux avec celui de leurs batiments et leur force), et a €i€ 
grav^e sur cette pierre, sous la direction du Colonel Thomas 
Dawes, nomm^ k cet effet par le Gouvernement. 

* See the Report of the Recess Committee, Senate No. 402 (1906), p. 7. 




In Memory of 

THE CHEVALIER DE SAINT SAUVEUR 

first Chamberlain of his Royal Highness, 

Count d' Artois, brother of his Majesty 

the King" of France 

" Get officier, aide-major de I'escadre fran^aise et 

lieutenant de vaisseau [sur le Tonnant] apres avoir 

eu le bonheur de risquer sa vie pour le service des 

Etats-Unis, remplissait son devoir lorsqu'il a e'te la 

victime d'un tumulte cause par des gens nialintentionne's : 

mort [le 15 Septembre 1778] avec le meme attachment 

pour I'Amerique, les liens du devoir et de I'inclination 

qui attachent ses compatriotes a la ville de Boston en 

ont ete plus resserres. Puissent etre ansi infru6lueux 

a jamais tous les efforts qu'n oserait tenter pour separer 

la France et I'Amerique. Telle est la priere que feront 

dans les siecles a venir au Dieu tout puissant, tout 

Fran^-ais et tout Ame'ricain qui jetteront les yeux sur 

le mausole'e d'un jeune homme enleve a des amis qui ne 

peuvent se consoller de I'avoir perdu, qu'en voyant de 

pareilles fleurs fune'raires repandues sur son tombeau ". 



Cette inscription a etc pnparce par le Comte d' Estaing 

r Amiral commandant de la premiere escadre francaise 
envoyee par le Roy de France aux Etats-Ums d' Amerique 



Chevalier de Saijit-Sanvenr 1 5 

De Saint-Sauveur was in his 28th year when he died, as 
appears from the Records of the Bibliotheque Nationale, and 
his name is there given as "Gregoire Comte de Saint-Sauveur." 
The text of the inscription — quoted above — which Ambas- 
sador Jusserand obtained from the Records of the French 
Navy for the recess committee of 1905, also calls him the 
Count de Saint-Sauveur, and he is so titled in a letter of 
his brother-in-law, de Breugnon. Elsewhere he is usually 
referred to as the Chevalier* — including the inscription as 
contained in the log book of the " Languedoc, " and the com- 
pilation of the French government of 1903, where his name 
appears in the list of lieutenants on " Le Tonnant " with the 
words, " mort a Boston en septembre 1778." So the title 
Chevalier was used on the monument as that by which he was 
commonly known. 

The style " Chevalier de Saint-Sauveur " means that the 
bearer was a cadet or younger son of a family the designation 
of whose title was " de Saint-Sauveur." Only a scion of the 
older nobility could hold such a position as chamberlain to the 
king's brother, and the family of de Gregoire Marquis de 
Saint-Sauveur was of that nobility. " Comte de Saint- 
Sauveur " would be a natural courtesy form for the son of a 
marquis, which accounts for the use of the title Count in the 
French records and the letter of de Breugnon. 

The designation " de Saint-Sauveur" was a nom de terre, 
the name of an estate. The family name of the Chevalier 
was de Gregoire ; his Christain name we do not know. The 
family fief took its name from the Chateau de Saint-Sauveur 
which was a very famous mediaeval fortress, hence the castle 
on the arms,! the blazon of which is: "silver with chateau 

* Writing to the Council Sept. 19, 1778, d'Estaing speaks of de Saint- 
Sauveur as tlie Chevalier. Mass. Archives, Documents, Vol. 200, p. 103. But 
in his report to the Secretary of State for the Marine, dated at Sea, Nov. 5, 
1778, he calls him Count. Cf. H. Doniol, Histoire de la Participatioti de la 
France a V Etablissetnent des Etats-Unis, Vol. 3 (Paris, 1888), p. 460. 

t For the drawing of the arms and for much of the information as to the 
family of de Saint-Sauveur and his title we are indebted to Mr. Pierre de 
Chaignon la Rose of Cambridge, Mass. 



1 6 The Memorial to the 

gules, surmounted by three towers crenelated, the same color." 
The coronet is that of a French marquis. 

The monument was erected in the plot between the tower 
of King's Chapel and the burying ground, and thus nearly 
over the tomb where the Chevalier's remains are said to have 
been placed, and it was unveiled by Governor Samuel W. 
McCall, Thursday, May 24th, 19 17, with appropriate and in- 
teresting ceremonies. 

The Ceremonies at the Dedication of the Monument. 

The Governor's invitation to the dedication set the hour at 
eleven o'clock in the morning, and at that time a procession 
formed in front of the State House headed by the Governor 
and including the speakers and invited guests, among them 
J. C. J. Flammand, Esq., the French Consul, at Boston, and 
a large delegation from the House of Representatives led by 
the Speaker, Hon. Channing H. Cox. It was intended to 
have M. J. J, Jusserand, the French ambassador, present to 
respond for France, but he was not able to leave Washington 
because of the arrival of the Italian War Mission, and his 
place was taken by Major, now Lieutenant-Colonel, Paul 
Azan, commander of the French mission to the Harvard 
regiment. 

Escorted by a detachment of bluejackets from the U. S. 
Battleship " Virginia," with militiamen of the 5th and 8th 
regiments carrying the flags of the United States and France, 
of the Commonwealth, the Society of the Colonial Wars, the 
Sons of the Revolution, and the Sons of the American Revo- 
lution, and preceded by buglers, the procession marched down 
Park to Tremont Street and thence to King's Chapel, where 
it was met by the building commission. Traffic on the street 
had been stopped and a large crowd gathered. With the 
members of the legislature and the passers-by standing with 
bared heads, and the monument draped with the flags of the 
two nations the Chevalier had sought to serve, there came a 
blare of bugles, the bluejackets presented arms, and the Gov- 



Chevalier de Saint- Sariveicr 1 7 

ernor removed the covering from the monument and placed 
upon its base a wreath with the tri-color of France. 

The company then entered the church. After the flags 
had been placed in front of the chancel, prayer was offered 
by Rev. Howard N. Brown, D. D., minister of King's Chapel, 
and Mr. Courtenay Guild for the building commission formally 
reported to the Governor that the commission had completed 
its work and had erected the monument, which he said " not 
only represents a memorial to a gallant officer but in the 
hearts and minds of the people typifies their admiration for 
what France is doing for the cause of civilization." 

REMARKS OF HIS EXCELLENCY, GOVERNOR McCALL. 

Governor McCall spoke of the erection of the monument 
as the fulfillment of a pledge of honor made by the state 
in the Revolution, and he referred to the enactment of the 
resolve for the monument, before the United States entered 
the present war, as demonstrating that the Commonwealth 
was not actuated by sentimental motives alone. "This 
occasion," he said, "serves to mark the love we have for 
France. When the event happened which the monument 
perpetuates we were the ally of France, and now, when the 
order of the General Court is carried out, we again find our- 
selves her ally." 

He then introduced the Mayor of Boston, Hon. James M. 
Curley. 

REMARKS OF HIS HONOR, MAYOR CURLEY. 

Mayor Curley referred to the monument as an addition to 
the many historical treasures which Boston possessed, and one 
which would cement the union between this country and the 
nation which made sure our freedom. Said the Mayor: 
" Were it not for the chivalry of France the colonies would 
not have achieved their independence. And in this hour of 
France's peril, when she is bereft of so many of her men and 
women, we try to repay a debt of one hundred and forty 



1 8 The Memorial to the 

years ago, not as an obligation, not through compulsion, nor 
through necessity, but through a sense of love. France is 
calling aloud, and we offer of our best to the end that liberty 
may be possible." 

The Governor next called upon Representative Fitz-Henry 
Smith, Jr., of Boston, for an historical address, and Mr. Smith 
spoke as follows : 

ADDRESS OF REPRESENTATIVE SMITH. 

Your Excellency, Major Azan, Fellow Americans : 

In the winter of the ever memorable year of 1776, there 
arrived in Boston a young Frenchman, Lewis — for he wrote 
his name here in the English fashion — Lewis Ansart de 
Maresquelle, and on December 6 of that year he made to the 
government of the State of Massachusetts Bay this proposal. 
Describing himself as an old captain of infantry who had 
been brought in the forges of France, his family having for 
many years furnished all the iron cannon in the service of 
the French king, he said that while at one time all cannon 
were cast with a cylinder which left little holes, often the 
cause of bursting, his father had adopted the practice of cast- 
ing cannon in a solid piece and boring them, and had invented 
a machine to do the boring. De Maresquelle then offered to 
disclose all his knowledge upon the subject, and agreed that 
if the state would supply the place and materials he would 
construct the furnaces, and when the mills were ready for 
boring would furnish one cannon ready for service every 
twenty-four hours out of the common iron ore within this 
state. 

In return, he asked from the state the expenses of his trip 
to America and one thousand dollars a year until the end of 
the war, and after that time the sum of six hundred sixty-six 
and two-thirds dollars yearly during his life. He also re- 
quested the honor of a colonel's commission to give him rank, 
but without pay or command as such.* 

* The text of this interesting " proposition " may be found in the State 
Archives, Court Records, Vol. 36, p. 298. 



Chevalier de Saint-Sauvcur 19 

There was an imperative need for just such assistance as 
de Maresquelle was able to render, for we are told that the 
demand for cannon was so great at the time that they were 
taking up the old things that had been stuck in the ground 
as posts at street corners and restoring them to service. The 
General Court promptly accepted his proposition, and besides 
granting him a commission as colonel of artillery made him 
inspector of foundries. 

He entered at once upon his duties and carried out his 
part of the contract throughout the war. Notwithstanding 
that he had stated that he expected no command, he could 
not resist the longing for active warfare, and when the Rhode 
Island campaign was organizing he sought an opportunity to 
go to the front, and the Board of War recommended him 
to General Sullivan as a brave and worthy man, glowing with 
ardor to signalize himself in the expedition, who came to offer 
himself with cheerfulness to any service for which he might 
be thought qualified. He served as an aid to Sullivan, and 
when the French fleet arrived at Boston was sent to super- 
vise the construction of the works in the harbor which the 
French admiral desired to protect his anchorage. 

Before the close of the war he married a Boston girl, 
and afterwards moved with her to Dracut, Mass., where he 
brought up his family and lived out his life a prominent and 
respected member of the community. Some ten years before 
his death he petitioned for authority to drop the " de Mares- 
quelle " from his name, as he was about to take out naturaliz- 
ation papers and wanted to be naturalized as Lewis Ansart, 
" his Christian and family name," and over his grave in the 
" Old Woodbine Cemetery " at Dracut is a stone inscribed, 
" In memory of Col. Lewis Ansart." 

The state upon its side carried out the contract in spirit 
and letter, adding to de Maresquelle's salary, when the value 
of the currencey depreciated, in order that the sum paid him 
might be equivalent to what it was stipulated he should re- 
ceive, and paying him the amounts agreed, to the fraction 



20 The Memorial to the 

of a cent, until he died in 1804. In fact, the last payment 
(which was made to his legal representatives) was for eighty- 
seven dollars, three cents and two mills, in full of the bal- 
ance due him at his death. 

Lewis de Maresquelle was one Frenchman who came to 
the assistance of America, a compatriot of Lafayette in the 
employ of the State of Massachusetts, and later her adopted 
son, and thus did the state keep faith with one who served 
her truly in her hour of need.* 

Less than three years after the shots were fired at Concord 
and Lexington the French king entered the contest as an ally 
of the struggling colonies, and on April 13, 1778, a royal fleet 
of ships of war, under the command of the Count d'Estaing, 
set sail from Toulon for the coast of the United States, 
Arriving at New York the fleet was despatched to Narragan- 
set Bay to assist General Sullivan in an attack upon Newport. 
The English ships followed and d'Estaing put to sea to meet 
them, when, on the i ith of August, there arose a violent gale, 
known for many years after as the " great storm," which dis- 
persed and damaged both fleets, and d'Estaing, assembling 
his ships as best as he could, headed for Boston to refit. 

In command of the vessels which then came into our har- 
bor were men bearing historic names. The captain of the 74 
" Z61e " was Count Barras, who afterwards succeeded to the 
command of the squadron of Ternay, and who will ever be 
gratefully remembered by Americans for his timely arrival 
before Yorktown with the siege train of the French army. 
Another commander was Bougainville, who had served with 
Montcalm at Quebec, and who, quitting the army for the 
navy, left his name to posterity because of his celebrated 
voyage around the world. The captain of the " Fantasque " 

* Due to the fact that de Maresquelle was in the employ of the state, his 
name does not appear in the compilation of the French government of 1903. 
Nor have we found him mentioned in Stone's Our French Allies (Providence, 
1884), nor in Balch, or the other works on the French in America during the 
Revolution. For his portrait, see Bostonian Society Publications, Vol. 10, p. 34. 



Chevalier de Saint- Saiiveur 2 1 

was Suffren, perhaps the greatest naval genius that the 
French nation has produced, whose fierce encounters with Sir 
Edward Hughes won for him the admiration of our Captain 
Mahan, and on the " Sagittaire " was d'Albert de Rions, in 
Suffren 's estimation the foremost officer in the French navy. 

There was another captain, the Chevalier de Raimondis, 
commander of the 74 " Cesar," which, separated from its 
sisters by the storm, had a lively encounter with a British 
vessel, in which the French captain lost his right arm. When 
de Raimondis arrived in Boston General Heath, the American 
commander, went to see him, and expressed regret at the 
Frenchman's misfortune, to which the brave officer replied, 
though still weak from his wound, " I am ready to lose my 
other arm in the cause of the Americans." And thereupon, 
perhaps with prophetic vision. Heath wrote in his Memoirs 
these words, " Remember this, ye Americans, in future 
times." 

My friends, America has remembered. From the begin, 
ning of the present cruel war our hearts have beat for the 
French people who have withstood so bravely and so well 
the fierce onslaught upon their liberties and the freedom of 
Europe. Already the blood of American youth has been 
shed on the soil of France, and now we have entered the 
struggle as a nation. The call to arms has gone forth 
throughout this land, and were the question asked, "■ Are ye 
ready to fight that France may live .? " back would come but 
one reply, " Yes, for we remember," 

De Raimondis was a second Frenchman who came to us 
when we were fighting for independence, a " regular " in the 
naval forces of the French king, and Boston was to know yet 
one other. D'Estaing and his ships were received here with 
enthusiasm, and receptions were the order of the day. But 
there were British sympathizers and discontented persons in 
the community, and not long after the French arrived a riot 
occurred which ended seriously and threatened still more dis- 
astrous consequences. So far as can be found out it happened 



22 The Memorial to the 

in this way. The admiral set up a bakery for his fleet in the 
town, and on the night of the 8th of September, 1778, a 
crowd gathered there demanding bread, which being refused 
they attacked the bakers, and two officers of the fleet, one 
the Chevalier de Saint-Sauveur, who attempted to intervene 
and restore order, were wounded. The American authorities 
were greatly troubled. It was felt that the very existence of 
the alliance with France might be at stake, for de Saint- 
Sauveur was not only an officer of rank in the fleet but a 
man of position in France and the first chamberlain of the 
king's brother. Guards were ordered to patrol the streets to 
prevent further disturbance and a reward was offered for the 
apprehension of the rioters, yet it never has been determined 
just who were responsible for the affray. 

De Saint-Sauveur's wound was mortal. Lingering a week, 
he died on the 15 th of September, and the next day the 
General Court of Massachusetts, expressing its detestation of 
the perpetrators and abettors of the horrid deed which ended 
his life, and out of respect to his memory, voted to attend his 
body to the place of interment and to provide a monumental 
stone in the burial ground where his remains should be de- 
posited, with such inscription as the Count d'Estaing might 
order. 

The Count, who through all bore himself in a manner 
which will forever make the city of Boston and the whole 
country his debtors, was deeply grateful for the sentiment 
which the Court expressed, but it was thought advisable that 
the funeral be less public, and the unhappy young man was 
buried at night, it is believed beneath us in this church, and 
without display, exactly as he had wished it. 

Listen to the account of the burial as told by the secretary 
of the fleet : 

"Eight sailors of the ' Tonnant' bore the coffin on their shoulders. 
I preceded them with the sexton and grave digger ; the recollet M. 
M. de Borda, de Puyse'gur and Pierveres followed ; the servant of 
the deceased and perhaps two or three Frenchmen closed the pro- 



Chevalier de Saint-Sauveur 23 

cession. We started in that order at ten o'clock, and arriving at 
the church called King's Chapel, found the basement of the church 
illuminated with many candles, without ostentation. The vault was 
opened and the Reverend Father deposited the remains without 
ceremony. The door of the vault having been closed and pad- 
locked, we returned to sign a certificate of interment which I had 
already drawn up. In fine, what we had been charged to do could 
not have been done with more precision and exactness." 

And so passed from this world — as d'Estaing wrote to the 
Cotincil* — one who fell a victim to the desire he had of pre- 
serving the lives of others, and who expressed in his last 
moments, and with his last words, the hope that his mis- 
fortune might only serve to cement still further the union 
between France and America. 

The funeral having taken place, the allied leaders en- 
deavored so far as possible to forget the incident and to 
remove all traces of ill feeling which it may have left. 
D'Estaing and his officers appeared publicly in Boston in full 
dress. They were saluted in the harbor and were met upon 
their landing by a committee of both houses of the legislature 
and conducted to the Council chamber. After the reception 
there, they bad breakfast with General Hancock and later 
took punch with Heath at headquarters. Tradition has it 
that the Common was resplendent with the gold lace of the 
visitors and that Madam Hancock, in order to meet the sit- 
uation with which she was confronted, had to send out and 
milk all the cows on the Common. 

A few days later there was a grand public dinner in Faneuil 
Hall, where but two short weeks ago the city entertained the 
great Marshal of modern France. f The dinner of 1778 was 
attended by upwards of five hundred guests, and twenty-three 
toasts were drunk to the accompaniment of the discharge of 

* Letter of Sept. 19, 1778, in the State Archives, Documents, Vol. 200, p. 
103, printed in the Report of the Committee on Libraries (1905), Senate No. 
336, p. 16. 

t Marshal Joffre and the French War Mission May 12, 1917. 



24 The Memorial to the 

cannon. One of the toasts we may repeat in spirit today- 
"The Alliance between France and America; may it never 
be broken." 

Thus, through the wisdom exercised by both sides, was 
closed a most unfortunate affair. And too well was it for- 
gotten, for upon inquiry made one hundred and twenty-five 
years after the Chevalier's death as to where in Boston the 
monument to him was erected, it was discovered that the vote 
of the Court had never been carried out. Just why, is a 
mystery ; but now the promise of the state has been fulfilled ; 
the shaft bearing the inscription written by d'Estaing has 
been unveiled before us, and we are gathered together in this 
church to commemorate the event. 

Let me recite the inscription in English : 

" In memory of the Chevalier de Saint-Sauveur, First Chamber- 
lain of His Royal Highness Count d'Artois, brother of his Majesty, 
the King of France. 

" This officer, Aide-Major of the French Fleet and a Lieutenant 
on the ' Tonnant, ' after having had the happiness of risking his 
life for the United States, was in the performance of his duty 
when he became the victim of a tumult caused by persons of evil 
intent ; dying with the same attachment for America, the ties of 
duty and sympathy which bind his compatriots to the City of Bos- 
ton have thus been drawn tighter. May all efforts to separate 
France and America be as unfruitful. Such is the prayer to Al- 
mighty God which in the centuries to come every Frenchman and 
American will oifer whose eyes shall fall upon this monument to 
a young man taken from his friends, who can be consoled for his 
loss only by seeing such funeral flowers spread upon his tomb." 

Noble words and true. And what time more fitting than 
the present for this occasion, when we find ourselves once 
more allied with France, not for the independence of a single 
nation, but in a great war for the independence of the nations 
of the world — to make the world " safe for democracy." For 
this stone which the Commonwealth has raised is more than 
a monument to one man, or evidence of the good faith of the 




THE GOVERNOR, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR AND SPEAKERS 
IN FRONT OF THE MONUMENT. 



Chevalier lie Saint- Sauveiir 25 

state, it is a memorial to a time long since past ; yes, — it is 
more than that, it is a perpetual reminder of the friendship of 
America and France, which has endured these hundred years, 
just as de Saint-Sauveur hoped that it might -and which, 
pray God, may endure forever. 

And so, the monument has been placed in the heart of 
this great and historic city of Boston, where so much has 
been done for human liberty, and where so much has been 
done to alleviate the sufferings of mankind, placed where the 
throngs passing daily upon the street may see and pause to 
consider, and where in future years the American father may 
come with his son, and when the son asks, " Father, what is 
that monument for?" may reply, "My son, that is a mem- 
orial to a young French officer who lost his life in Boston 
when France was helping us to gain our independence, 
erected by the State to show that we have not forgotten the 
sacrifice which he and other Frenchmen then made for us, 
and as a mark of our regard for France, liberty loving like us 
and one with us in the cause of humanity and civilization, a 
union which with God's help we shall neither of us sever." 

The last speaker was Major Paul Azan who spoke in 
French. 

ADDRESS OF MAJOR AZAN. 

Excellence, Mesdames et Messieurs : 

L'absence de M. Jusserand, qui compte de si nombreuses 
sympathies dans les villes de Boston et de Cambridge, me 
donne le grand honneur de representer aujourd'hui la France 
dans cette touchante ceremonie. 

Ainsi, par un etrange concours de circonstances, c'est un 
ofificier frangais qui a le privilege, apres 139 ans, de donner le 
salut de la Mere-Patrie a une tombe presque oubliee. La 
"General Court" n'avait pas prevu, en 1778, que son voeu 
serait realise si tardivement, alors que d'autres ofificiers serai- 
ent venus en Massachusetts, apporter aux jeunes gens de 



26 The Memorial to the 

rUniversite Harvard le fruit d'une experience acquise sur les 
champs de bataille. 

Si le temps a passe, les sentiments affectueux qui unissaient 
nos deux nations au XVIIP siecle ne se sont pas attenues ; 
ils se sont meme singulierement developpes depuis quelques 
annees. C'est aux jours d'epreuve qu'on reconnait les veri- 
tables amities. L'amitie americaine s'est revelee sous toutes 
ses formes : par une inepuisable charite, par une assistance 
morale de tous les instants, par une intervention militaire 
dont les effets etonneront le monde. 

Ceux qui ne connaissent pas suffisament I'ame fran^aise et 
I'ame americaine ne comprennent pas toute la profondeur de 
cette attirance mutuelle, basee sur la delicatesse de senti- 
ments, sur I'estime reciproque et surtout sur un amour com- 
mun de I'independance. 

Au temps du chevalier de Saint-Sauveur, un officier fran- 
gais, le capitaine de Raimondis, qui etait manchot, et dont on 
vous parlait tout-a-l'heure avec eloquence, disait qu'il don- 
nerait sans hesiter le bras qui lui restait pour la cause ameri- 
caine. Les officiers fran^ais d'aujourd'hui pensent de meme ; 
et plus d'un, malgre les blessures regues, ne reve qu'a retour- 
ner au combat, pour faire triompher avec I'armee americaine 
le principe de la liberte des peuples. 

Toutes les rivalites, toutes les inimities qui pouvaient exister 
a I'epoque du chevalier de Saint-Sauveur ont disparu, laissant 
s'etablir une intimite complete entre les peuples amis de I'in- 
dependance. . . 

La legende rapporte que, si le chevalier de Saint-Sauveur 
fut frappe par la foule, c'est par suite d'une erreur qui I'avait 
fait prendre pour un Anglais. Aujourd'hui, les Anglais sont 
nos allies, nos amis ; nulle trace ne reste, dans notre esprit, 
des inimities d'autrefois, parce que les Anglais se sont tou- 
jours battus en gentlemen, avec des procedes loyaux. Nous 
marchons maintenant avec eux la main dans la main, comme 
avec les Americains. 

Aussi y a-t-il, dans la ceremonie de ce jour, un symbole 



Chevalier de Saini-Sauveiir 2/ 

touchant de I'amitie entre nos trois peuples. Nous venons, 
devant ce monument, non seulement d^plorer le malheureux 
accident arrive naguere a un officier frangais, mais encore 
celebrer la reconciliation des peuples americain et frangais 
avec les Anglais, leurs ennemis d'antan. Tous sont unis 
aujourd'hui pour la meme cause, et defendent avec ardeur 
la civilisation menagee. 

Et vous, chevalier de Saint-Sauveur, qui avez eu jadis des 
funerailles modestes, avec une assistance restreinte, dans 
I'obscurite de la nuit, vous recevez aujourd'hui un hommage 
eclatant. C'est la population de Boston, ce sont les hauts 
dignitaires de I'Etat, ce sont les representants de la plus 
vieille Universite de I'Amerique qui viennent ici honorer votre 
memoire. 

Leur hommage va, par dessus votre monument, a la France 
heroique, a la France qui se bat, a la France qui a ^te incarnee 
recemment ici par un de ses plus illustres generaux, le mare- 
chal Joffre. II va au soldat des tranchees, qui depuis bientot 
trois ans combat sans repit, mais sans faiblesse. II va enfin 
au soldat americain, qui partagera bientot les souffrances et 
les dangers du soldat frangais ; il va a cette armee en forma- 
tion dont I'entree en ligne decidera certainement la Victoire. 

TRANSLATION. 
By Professor Barrett Wendell of Harvard University. 
Yo7ir Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

The absence of Monsieur Jusserand, who has so many 
friendships in Boston and in Cambridge, brings me to-day the 
great honor of representing France in the touching ceremony 
for which we are gathered together. 

So, by a remarkable chain of circumstances, it is a French 
officer, who has the privilege, after 139 years, of bringing the 
benediction of the Mother Country to a tomb almost forgot- 
ten. In 1778, the General Court could never have thought 
that its purpose would stay unfulfilled until a time when 



28 The Memorial to the 

other French officers should have come to Massachusetts, 
bearing to Harvard Students the fruit of experience to be 
found only on the fields of battle. 

Yet, though time has passed, the bonds of affection which 
held our two nations together in the i8th century have no- 
wise weakened ; rather, in these latest years they have grown 
stronger than ever. It is in days of stress that we come to 
know what friendships are true. The friendship of America 
for France, in these days has proved itself in every way. In 
charity it has been boundless, in moral support it has been 
unfailing, in military aid it has begun a work of which the 
results will surprise the world. 

None but those who truly know the soul of France and the 
soul of America can understand the full strength of the mutual 
attraction which thus binds our countries together. It is a 
matter not only of tender feeling, not only of regard for each 
others' virtues, but most of all a matter of our common pas- 
sion for national independence. 

In the times of the Chevalier de Saint-Sauveur, a French 
officer, Captain de Raimondis, who had lost an arm, said that 
he would eagerly give the arm that was left him for the cause 
of American independence. French officers of to-day are of 
the same mind ; in spite of wounds hardly healed they think 
only of when they may be allowed to rejoin the battle, to 
fight with Americans at their side for the great principle that 
peoples must be free. 

Every rivalry, every enmity which may have existed when 
the Chevalier de Saint-Sauveur was here is now a thing of 
the past. The peoples who love independence are now com- 
pletely one. 

There is a tradition that when the Chevalier de Saint- 
Sauveur was struck down by a mob, it was because by some 
blunder of their own, the mob fancied him to be English. At 
that time the English were at war with America, and with 
France too. To-day they are our friends, our allies, and those 
of America as well. In France there is no trace left of the 



Chevalier de Saint-Sauveur 29 

old feuds. From beginning to end the English have fought 
like loyal gentlemen. We are glad to march with them side 
by side, hand in hand, just as we are glad to grasp the hands 
of Americans. 

So the ceremony of to-day is a beautiful symbol of the 
friendship which now animates our three peoples. We come 
here, not only to lament the luckless accident which in olden 
time befell a gallant French officer, but more still to cele- 
brate the reconciliation of nations in his days at war with one 
another. All three are to-day united in a common cause ; all 
alike are arisen to defend and to preserve civilization, threat- 
ened by their common foe. 

So you. Chevalier de Saint-Sauveur, you whose funeral was 
so simple, with few mourners, and in the darkness of night, 
you receive to-day a tribute such as few have known. The 
people of Boston, the dignitaries of the state, the representa- 
tives of the eldest of American universities, are gathered to- 
gether here, in homage to your loyal memory. 

Their homage is rendered not only to you. For them your 
monument enshrines the ideal of France, heroic, at war — the 
France embodied here only a few days ago by that most illus- 
trious of our generals. Marshal Joffre. Their homage is ren- 
dered as well to the French soldier in the trenches, where for 
almost three years he has fought incessantly, unfaltering. It 
is rendered also to the soldier of America who will soon share 
the hardships and the dangers of the soldier of France. It is 
rendered to that army, now gathering together, whose joining 
with ours will bring us all the certainty of Victory. 

During the ceremonies all joined in singing the " Star 
Spangled Banner " and the " Marseillais," and thus did 
Massachusetts keep as a pledge of love and honor a promise 
made in the Revolution. When it is considered that on May 
24, 1917, the General Court "attended in procession" to the 
place where, it is recorded, the Chevalier was buried, as the 
Court had voted to do one hundred and thirty-nine years be- 



30 



The Memorial to the 



fore, and there dedicated a monument bearing the inscription 
which d'Estaing, acting under the vote of the Court, had 
written, the occasion is shown to be unique in the history 
of the City and the Commonwealth, and one that those 
present may well remember. 




Chevalier de Saint- Sanveiir %\ 



NOTE 



A "communication" in the Independent Ledger of September 14, 1778. 

The riot which occasioned the issuing a proclamation by the Council of 
this State, offering an high reward for the discovery and apprehension of those 
concerned therein, was begun, it's said, by seamen captur'd in British vessels 
and some of Burgoyne's army who had inlisted as privateers just ready to sail. 
A body of these fellows demanded, we are told, bread of the French bakers 
who were employed for the supplying the Count d'Estaing's fleet ; being re- 
fused, they fell upon the bakers with clubs, and beat them in a most outrage- 
ous manner. Two officers of the Count's being apprized of the tumult, and 
attempting to compose the affray were greatly wounded ; one of them is a 
person of distinguished family and rank 

We are well informed that his Excellency the Count D'Estaing, upon hear- 
ing of the violence that had been committed though much grieved con- 
sidered the manner in the calmest and most prudent light, and was thoroughly 
satisfied that it was highly disagreeable to the inhabitants and that every 
proper method would be taken for finding out and punishing the offenders. 
Such prudence and moderation mark this great man and must disappoint the 
hopes of our enemies, who would be glad that every such incident might prove 
the means of creating dissentions of a more extensive and important nature. 

A correspondent observes, that there is a striking contrast between the 
behavior of the British military of this town, and that of the French. The 
former, though coming from what we formerly regarded as our mother country 
and with a professed design to support law, and protect us, yet in a wanton 
and butcherly manner fired upon the inhabitants of Boston, without any just 
provocation, before they received any assault that might afford even a pre- 
tence to so bloody a procedure ; the latter now become by the oppression and 
cruelties of Britain our allies and protectors when assaulted themselves by un- 
known ruffians, have left their protection and satisfaction entirely in the hands 
of the civil magistrate. Nay, we have it from good authority, that the General, 
the Count d'Estaing, has desired that should any inhabitant appear to have 
been concerned in this affray, he might not be punished, and the centuries at 
the French baking house were prohibited from using any violence in defending 
even so necessary an article as bread for their fleet. 



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